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Monthly Archives: February 2019

Various media have been waging one of the bigger anti-raw milk propaganda campaigns in memory through their reporting on a recent individual case of brucellosis attributed to raw milk consumption. The media are using the case of the third individual incidence of brucellosis blamed on raw milk consumption in the past year and a half to warn the public that people are putting their health in jeopardy if they don’t consume milk that is pasteurized. The illnesses occurred in Texas in August 2017, New Jersey in October 2017 and New York in November 2018 with the latest illness blamed on Miller’s Biodiversity Farm of Quarryville, Pennsylvania; there is currently a quarantine in effect prohibiting the farm from distributing raw dairy products. A cow that tested positive for Brucella has been removed from the dairy herd.

The media have been taking their cues from press releases issued by public health departments that have been giving the advice to pasteurize all milk. However, the solution to avoid getting brucellosis is far different from what public health and the media are telling you. In the words of one healthcare professional, “For public health officials to issue public notices that the solution to this avoidable problem is to pasteurize all milk, is astonishing.”

First off, the three cases of brucellosis are the only known cases attributed to raw milk consumption over the past 20 years. Brucellosis is a systemic disease in cattle and humans that is caused by the bacteria Brucella abortus. At one time the disease in cows caused severe reductions in offspring and was a problem for the cattle industry. A national eradication campaign was launched in the 1950s and, according to USDA statistics, the number of cattle/bison herds affected by brucellosis in the U.S. has been less than 10 every year from 2003 onward.1

The eradication program’s success has led to a huge decline in the number of brucellosis cases in humans; estimates are that there are about 100 cases of human brucellosis per year in this country.2 In the U.S. this is mainly an occupational disease with most of the rare cases of brucellosis being in people who attended the birth of an infected cow and then became infected during handling of the birth tissues and fluids.3,4

In an infected dairy cow, the Brucella abortus pathogen can proliferate in the mammary glands and then enter the milk. The pathogen can pass to humans when drinking the infected milk but, as mentioned, the cases of brucellosis (also known as undulant fever) attributed to drinking raw milk in the U.S. are extremely rare.

The “milk ring test” is the traditional and commonly used method to screen dairy herds to detect any cows with brucellosis; the test is performed on the herd’s milk to check for the rare presence of Brucella antibodies.

Two vaccines against brucellosis have been developed for calves: the S19 vaccine and the RB51 vaccine. The S19 vaccine is effective but it has the disadvantage of causing testing for antibodies to become positive. The vaccine can make it difficult to distinguish between a vaccinated cow and an infected cow. The RB51 vaccine does not cause the antibody testing of cows to become positive but another problem arises with its use.

The RB51 vaccine must be administered to calves before they become fertile; a side effect is that, if a cow is given the RB51 vaccine when pregnant, it may actually cause an infection with the vaccine strain of Brucella in the vaccinated cow. It is, therefore, possible that if the RB51 vaccine isn’t given strictly according to the protocol, the vaccinated cow may become infected and may shed the pathogen (i.e., the RB51 strain of Brucella) into the milk.

Public health officials have found in all three cases of illness from brucellosis attributed to raw milk consumption, the strain of Brucella abortus discovered in the three individuals was the RB51 vaccine strain. In fact, in November 2017, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture sent a letter to licensed raw milk producers in the state advising them to stop immunizing cows from brucellosis with the RB51 vaccine.5

So the solution to preventing brucellosis in raw milk is not for producers to pasteurize the milk but rather to either stop giving their herd the RB51 vaccine or to make sure their vets give the calves the vaccine before the calves become fertile. Worth noting, too, is that hundreds of people drank raw milk produced by the herds responsible for the three cases of brucellosis and, as far as is known, no one else became sick.

In the meantime, the media fear-mongering continues on. The latest case of brucellosis attributed to raw milk consumption dates back to November 2018, but to read the stories in the media, you would have thought it was just discovered. CDC press releases on this latest case dated January 23, 2019, and February 11, 2019, are providing the impetus for the flood of media reports.

Has an agenda ever gotten so much mileage over three illnesses?

A fear-inciting statement from the February 11 CDC press release that the media have parroted is, “the CDC and state health officials are investigating potential exposures, to Brucella strain RB51 in 19 states, connected to consuming raw (unpasteurized) milk from Miller’s Biodiversity Farm in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.”6 (The farm allegedly distributed raw milk to people in the 19 states listed later in the release.) Being exposed to a pathogen is far different than being sickened by it; we are exposed to various pathogenic bacteria such as listeria and e. coli in the environment every day.

One headline screamed, “Deadly Disease Caused by Raw Milk Has Already Put 19 U.S. States on High Alert.”7 There have been no deaths from brucellosis attributed to raw milk consumption since the eradication program succeeded in substantially eliminating the incidence of the disease and possibly even long before then.

The public health agencies and their allies in the press have been misleading the public long enough on raw milk and brucellosis. It’s time for fear and hysteria to give way to science and common sense.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA), the North Carolina Farm Bureau, and the state’s dairy industry are working to repeal a 4-month-old law legalizing herdshare agreements. It is not known whether they have been able to find a legislator willing to sponsor such a freedom-robbing bill.

A herdshare agreement is a private contractual arrangement in which someone purchases an ownership interest in a dairy animal (or herd of dairy animal) and pays a fee to a farmer for boarding, caring for and milking the animals. The 2018 North Carolina Farm Bill contained a provision stating, nothing . . . shall prohibit the dispensing of raw milk or raw milk products for personal use or consumption to, or the acquisition of raw milk or raw milk products for personal use or consumption by, an independent or partial owner of a cow, goat, or other lactating animal.”1

NCDA Commissioner Steve Troxler isn’t waiting for a change in the law to begin restricting herdshares. The department has issued a directive prohibiting dairies from selling shares in dairy animals at state-run farmers markets. There is nothing in the herdshare law, or any other law, that gives it this authority.

The dairy industry’s push to repeal the herdshare law is coming at a time when many of the state’s Grade A dairy farms are either going out of business or barely hanging on. The distribution of raw milk through herdshare agreements can help save some of these dairies; the state’s dairy farms need all the help they can get. Between April 2017 to April 2018 North Carolina lost a staggering 24% of its Grade A dairies, dropping from 192 to 146. For the past four years, conventional dairies have been receiving a price for their milk that is well below the cost of production–a trend that shows no signs of going away.

The strategy for those trying to repeal the herdshare law will be to play the fear card trying to convince legislators that raw milk is major health threat, especially to children. When the recent deadly foodborne illness outbreaks involving foods such as romaine lettuce, ice cream, and cantaloupe are taken into consideration, there is a double standard in banning raw milk sales for human consumption in North Carolina (raw milk sales are legal for pet consumption). In spite of the efforts of CDC and FDA to make it seem otherwise, there have been no deaths legitimately attributed to raw milk consumption since the current CDC foodborne illness database started up in 1998. According to a recent study, the number of illnesses attributed to raw milk consumption in the U.S. has actually gone down as demand and consumption have increased.2 Reports are that herdshare farmers asking the state-run labs to test raw milk to help assure safety have been turned down.

The dairy industry leaders might also play the fear card with the state’s Grade A dairies, warning them that one outbreak blamed on raw milk could damage the conventional industry. The evidence shows otherwise–that the price of pasteurized milk and the demand for it aren’t affected by a foodborne illness outbreak blamed on raw milk consumption. If Farm Bureau, the dairy industry, and NCDA are successful in repealing herdshares, at least some of the Grade A dairies will be without a potential lifeline that could keep their operations going in the face of the low prices they are receiving for their milk intended for pasteurization. Raw milk produced for pasteurization and raw milk produced for direct consumption are mostly not in competition; if North Carolina raw milk consumers can’t get raw milk in the state, most will not drink pasteurized milk but will look outside the state for raw milk sources.

The Grade A dairies and many other farms can benefit from the herdshare law; raw milk is often the draw that leads to sales of other farm products such as meat, poultry, eggs and produce. The herdshare law can help the small farm sector in the state, enabling the start-up of micro-dairies. Michele Presnell, the state representative for the 118 District, noted that 60 years ago there were around 50 Grade A dairies and 150 other dairies in her home county of Yancy and today she knows of none. Reviving the dairy sector through herdshares can keep more of the food dollar in the community.

The herdshare law can make raw milk the centerpiece of a small diversified farm. In neighboring Tennessee where herdshare agreements have been legal for about 10 years, shareholder dairies have thrived; it is estimated that there are around 300 herdshare programs operating in Tennessee.

If the effort to repeal the herdshare law is successful, the 2004 law expressly banning herdshares goes back on the books, and the state will continue to lose business to South Carolina where the sale of raw milk is legal. Over the years this ban has resulted in millions of dollars of lost revenue.

There never should have been a herdshare ban in the first place; to say that someone with an ownership interest in a dairy animal can’t get milk from the animal unless it is boarded on the owner’s premises is a basic denial of property rights. For those who believe in property rights, freedom of food choice, and the right of dairy farmers to make a living keeping the herdshare law intact is a fight worth taking on.

Posted here by permission from Joel Salatin. Originally published at TheLunaticFarmer.com on January 10, 2019, under the title “Tennessee: Illegal to Drink Milk from Your Own Cow”. Be sure to read other posts by Joel. Click to see “What You Can Do“

Just when you think you’re making progress in the food freedom arena, along comes a kind, sincere-minded loving zealot to throw a monkey wrench in things.

Such is the case in Tennessee, where Senator Briggs, a medical doctor, has filed Senate Bill 15 [SB 15] to criminalize drinking the milk from your own cow. An ecoli outbreak in Knox County apparently triggered the Draconian response from this well-meaning doctor. Of course, as is common in these cases, the outbreak was never actually tied to raw milk, but government bureaucrats color any opportunity to question and science generally flies out the window.

The bill “prohibits a person who owns a partial interest in a hoofed mammal from using the milk of the animal for the person’s personal consumption or other personal use.” If you ever wanted to see a bill targeted specifically at food freedom, this one is the prime example. Aimed squarely at herdshare, which has been the work-around for raw-milk prohibitive states, it also denies a person who owns a cow or a goat (any hoofed animal) the freedom to consume the milk from their own animal.

“Partial interest” would include both partial and full interest; in other words, if I have a goat that I want to milk and it’s mine alone, I certainly have a partial interest; lots more than partial, but at least partial. You don’t have to be a lawyer or linguist to appreciate the broad reach of this terminology. Every homesteader and farmsteader who has a goat or cow for their own personal milk consumption would be a criminal under this statute.

The sad part is that this doctor is a kind, well-meaning fellow. He doesn’t want to see anyone else get hurt. Therein lies the crux of the problem. It isn’t the government’s responsibility to keep people from getting hurt. If we really want to keep people from getting hurt, we should fill in all the backyard swimming pools, where we know 50 children will drown this year, just like every year. We would outlaw skiing, race car driving, and certainly football. We would outlaw pets because they scratch, bite and sometimes kill.

Safety is highly subjective. I don’t think it’s safe to drink 3 cans of Coca-cola a day, but that’s legal. I don’t think it’s safe to eat veggie burgers, but people do. If we’re going to pick and choose everything that could be unsafe and outlaw it, we might as well all go live in a bubble room and put on respirators. We pick and choose risks. Some eat at McDonald’s; others don’t. Some take the flu vaccine; others don’t. The critical thing to understand is that if the government is responsible for my health, then it necessarily has a fiduciary responsibility to penetrate every health-impactful decision I make in order to protect itself from economic liability.

It comes down to who owns the person. As long as the state owns the person, which is where America is right now, nothing is beyond the regulatory purview of the police, the ultimate enforcer of the laws. As the state micromanages our lives, the need for more police to enforce those regulations increases. The more police, the less freedom. Any society needing more police per capita is a society heading toward tyranny.

So here’s to hoping the good folks of Tennessee raise their milk glasses to liberty and defeat the good senator’s bill, regardless of how well intended. It’s a diabolical attack on freedom and personal autonomy.

Can you think of any food that should be illegal? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
SB15 has been referred to the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee. Email committee members asking them to refuse any hearing on SB15 and to vote NO on the bill.

1. Email these Honorable Senators (PLEASE DO NOT CALL); you may copy/paste the entire block to email the whole committee:

2. Please call and email sponsors of the legislation, asking them to withdraw their respective bills.

sen.richard.briggs@capitol.tn.gov
Contact Senator Briggs (615-741-1766, his staffer is Sarah Adair) and ask him to withdraw SB15.

rep.patsy.hazlewood@capitol.tn.gov
Contact Representative Patsy Hazelwood (615-741-2746, staffer is Kyle Faulkner), the sponsor of the companion bill banning herdshares in the General Assembly (the bill doesn’t have a number as of yet) and tell her to withdraw the herdshare bill.